Interindividual differences in environmentally relevant positive trait affect impacts sustainable behavior in everyday life

Emotions are powerful drivers of human behavior that may make people aware of the urgency to act to mitigate climate change and provide a motivational basis to engage in sustainable action. However, attempts to leverage emotions via climate communications have yielded unsatisfactory results, with many interventions failing to produce the desired behaviors. It is important to understand the underlying affective mechanisms when designing communications, rather than treating emotions as simple behavioral levers that directly impact behavior. Across two field experiments, we show that individual predispositions to experience positive emotions in an environmental context (trait affect) predict pro-environmental actions and corresponding shifts in affective states (towards personal as well as witnessed pro-environmental actions). Moreover, trait affect predicts the individual behavioral impact of positively valenced emotion-based intervention strategies from environmental messages. These findings have important implications for the targeted design of affect-based interventions aiming to promote sustainable behavior and may be of interest within other domains that utilize similar intervention strategies (e.g., within the health domain).

Anticipated and experienced positive affect shape sustainable action in everyday life

Emotions are powerful drivers of human behavior that may make people aware of the urgency to act to mitigate climate change and provide a motivational basis to engage in sustainable action. However, attempts to leverage emotions via climate communications have yielded unsatisfactory results, with many interventions failing to produce the desired behaviors. Considering emotions as simple behavioral levers without considering differences in the underlying affective mechanisms may not optimally exploit their potential to promote sustainable action. Across two field experiments, here we show that individual predispositions to experience positive emotions in an environmental context (trait affect) predict pro-environmental actions and corresponding shifts in affective states (towards personal as well as witnessed pro-environmental actions). Moreover, trait affect predicts the individual behavioral impact of emotion-based intervention strategies from positive environmental messages. These findings have important implications for the targeted design of affect-based interventions aiming to promote sustainable behavior.

Depression Symptoms Relationship With Music Use: Investigating the Role of Trait Affect, Musical Ability, Music Preferences

People across cultures often use music to evoke positive emotions and moods. Yet, some people tend to employ maladaptive strategies such as rumination, avoidant coping, or social isolation when they listen to music. The present research investigated how strongly maladaptive musical engagement is linked with depression and wellbeing in a sample of 1415 Indians (17–65 years) across four cities and two countries. Participants completed a battery of assessments on trait affect, depression, adaptive and maladaptive musical engagement strategies, music preferences, and music skills. 1329 participants were included for analysis. All nine symptoms ( r = .16, to .30) and the sum score of depression ( r = .39), as well as trait negative affect ( r = .36) were correlated with maladaptive music engagement. Six of the symptoms of depression were significant predictors of maladaptive music engagement. Among those, suicidal ideation, worthlessness, and fatigue were the most important. Maladaptive music engagement increased the odds of experiencing all the depression symptoms ( OR = 1.04 to 1.14). Trait positive affect ( r = .29) and having music as a hobby ( r = .22) correlated with adaptive music engagement. Musicians who had been playing an instrument for six years and above had lower levels of maladaptive music engagement ( d = .84). Furthermore, the results show that depression symptoms might have a bidirectional relationship with maladaptive music engagement, with suicidal thoughts being the most important symptom. The current study also validated the Healthy-Unhealthy Music Scale (HUMS; Saarikallio et al., 2015 ) in India and provides a cut-off score based on the sensitivity (.86) and specificity (.66) in identifying people at risk for depression. Overall, the results reveal that socio-demographic factors (age, gender, relationship status, occupation status, geographical location), psychological factors (trait affect, depressive symptoms), and music skills play an important role in engaging with music.

Does Trait Affect Impact Activity Engagement?

Research has shown the amount of effort we expend towards our goals depends on a sense of self-efficacy, perception of task difficulty, and likelihood of achieving our goal. All of these processes are susceptible to the influence of affect. For example, negative moods may impede goal achievement by increasing perceptions of difficulty (Silvestrini & Gendolla, 2019). Negative experiences (such as past failures) can encourage these negative moods and subsequently impact self-efficacy (Esposito, Gendolla, & Van der Linden, 2014). Findings from self-efficacy research (e.g. Esposito et al., 2014) suggest that older adults may be particularly susceptible to the impacts of negative affect on effort mobilization, especially when tasks already seem challenging, with little chance of success. Perception of task difficulty, then, impacts the amount of effort exerted in completing the task. The present study sought to examine the factors that impact perceptions of difficulty and subsequent effort expenditure, represented by systolic blood pressure responsivity (SBP-R). Younger (N = 41) and Older (N = 163) adults completed a difficult cognitive task as part of a larger, longitudinal study, as well as measures of trait affect before study sessions. Our findings indicate younger adults exert less effort overall than older adults; however, when negative trait affect is considered, we find that higher levels of negative affect in older adults reduced task engagement. These results provide support for an effect of negative affect on task appraisals and posited age-related differences in effort mobilization.

Daily Affective Experiences across the Lifespan during the COVID-19 Outbreak

Objectives Older adults are considered one of the most vulnerable groups to COVID-19. However, previous studies on emotion and aging have found that older adults report better well-being than younger adults in global survey and daily report. To better understand older adults’ well-being during the COVID-19 outbreak, we examined age differences in daily affective experiences in this study. Method A total of participants from mainland China aged 18 to 85 were recruited to participate in the 14-day daily diary study, after a pretest. Their trait affect and demographic information were measured in the pretest. Their daily affect and stress levels were measured in the daily assessments. Results We found that older adults reported a higher level of low arousal positive affect (e.g., calm) and lower levels of high arousal negative affect (HAN; e.g., anxiety), low arousal negative affect (LAN; e.g., dullness), and perceived stress related to COVID-19 in daily life, compared to younger adults. Discussion These results provide initial evidence of daily affective well-being across different age groups in adulthood during the COVID-19 outbreak. Such information is important for developing interventions to promote better well-being during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Relationship between depression symptoms and music use: The role of trait affect, music skills, music preferences

People across cultures often use music to evoke positive emotions and moods. Yet, some people tend to employ maladaptive strategies such as rumination, avoidant, or social isolation purposes when they listen to music. This maladaptive musical engagement style is linked with depression and poorer well-being. The present research investigated the association between musical engagement strategies, symptoms of depression, trait affect, and musical expertise in a sample of 1,415 Indians (17- 65 years) across four cities and two countries. Participants completed a battery of assessments on trait affect, depression, and musical engagement and music preferences, music skills. Adaptive musical engagement was measured with the healthy music subscale (HM) and maladaptive musical engagement was measured with the unhealthy music subscale (UHM) of the healthy-unhealthy music scale (Saarikallio et al., 2015). All nine symptoms (r=.16, to .30) and sum score (r=.39) of depression, trait negative affect (r=.36) were correlated with UHM. Six symptoms (R2=.18) were predictors of UHM among those suicidal ideation, guilt, and fatigue were the strongest predictors. Engagement with UHM increased the odds of experiencing depression with mild (Odds ratios=1.05 to 1.10), moderate (Odds ratio =1.05 to 1.16), and severe symptomatology (Odds ratios = 1.05 to 1.17). Trait positive affect (r=.29), music hobby (r=.22) correlated with HM. Participants with music skills engaged in HM (d = -.26 to -.36) more than the participants without music skills. Overall the results show that musical engagement either through listening or active participation in musical activities is an indicator for the well-being of the individual. Maladaptive musical engagement is detrimental to mental health. The current study validated the HUMS scale in India, provided a cut-off score based on the sensitivity and specificity in detecting depression by a non-clinical phenomenon, and it can be useful in treating depression with the aid of music-related interventions.